


To Meet You Again

by mickey2k14



Category: Kingsman, Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 15:09:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11015952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mickey2k14/pseuds/mickey2k14
Summary: Eggsy always imagined he'd die in the field. He thought he'd die saving the world, though, and not because some self-proclaimed genius wanted to mess with time.





	To Meet You Again

Eggsy isn't ashamed of who he is.

Despite what some people think, his background and his upbringing don't make him any less of a knight than the others. He passed the same tests they did, and he saved the bloody world with just Merlin and Roxy by his side, so he thinks he deserves a little credit. But it's clear, in spite of everything he's done, there are some strongly ingrained prejudices in the agency that no number of successful missions will get rid of.

And it's not that Eggsy cares about their opinions, he'd eat McDonald's burgers in his Adidas jacket and shoes just to get a rise out of those pompous assholes, but sometimes he wants things easy. There are some days when the missions take their toll, when things really hit him hard, and he doesn't have the energy for pointless fights.

So maybe he starts talking proper and standing straighter and being more picky about his food choices in the canteen. It shouldn't matter, and he remembers Harry telling him being a gentleman has nothing to do with his accent, but, apparently, it does. It only takes a few days of this new, improved Gary for the disdainful looks to reduce and some of the older, more stuffy agents to express their approval that he's falling in line and taking advantage of the opportunity afforded to him. There's a subtle insult there, a dig at his roots, but he smiles like he's expected to and brushes it aside.

Eggsy has always been a fan of self-preservation and, when it's his life on the line, he's not too proud to play nice.

It's not to say that it's all bad. He has two close friends in Roxy and Merlin, who accept him as he is, and he saves Gawain's life once and earns his fierce loyalty in return. It gets him introduced to Percival and Bors, who surprise him with how funny they are, and he finds himself with regular drinking companions. He slips up a few times with his slang and they rib him for it and he fires back with a jibe about Percival's poor aim in the last mission. They laugh, order another round, and they don't care Eggsy calls them 'bruv' when he's drunk. It's comfortable, and he likes it.

He also likes the furnished house he lives in with his mother and Daisy, likes knowing that they're safe from Dean and his abuse forever, and that his mother has the best therapists in London. She's getting better, found herself a part time job and gained some of her confidence back, and Eggsy gets to watch as she goes out and dates and learns to trust again.

He didn't realise just how unhappy his mother was until he saw her smile, huge and wide and beautiful, when she came home from her first day of work. Daisy and her had been baking madeleines, the smell of cookies filling the house, and she was humming as she danced around the kitchen. He'd forgotten how she used to sing.

"Hi," he grinned, setting his umbrella down by the door, and leaning against the jamb. "Was it a good day?"

Her returning grin was beatific. "It was brilliant."

"I want to hear every single detail." Eggsy said, sitting down at the table and not caring about the flour and sugar dusting the surface. "Tell me everything."

Daisy copied his pose, sitting in her chair and propping her elbows on the table. "Everything!"

"Well, okay then," she said, the grin still so wide on her face. "But only if you supervise Daisy while we make another batch. I think we've got enough left over for it."

There were only a few moments in life that were ever truly perfect and, for Eggsy, this was one of them. He got flour all over his suit and in his hair, and the clean up the next day would be horrendous, but he couldn't bring it in himself to regret it. The madeleines tasted like the best treat in the world, far superior to any caviar or fine wine, and they stayed in the kitchen for hours, just talking, while Daisy slept in his arms, and he'd never been happier.

They would make more madeleines in the future, Roxy coming over to have them when they were still hot, and they were brilliant but the cookies on the first night were the best. He recorded it on his glasses and he would play the footage back more times than he could remember just to relive the moment.

There are some weeks when there's hardly a mission available, and others when he's barely been debriefed before he's off on another, so he learns to take the moments when he can. He drinks in The Black Prince with his old friends, hangs out with the other knights and Merlin in his downtime and spends time with his family. He watches as his mother falls in love with a good man and he sees Daisy grow up in a stable household. It's all he's ever wanted.

He moves out of the house after his mother gets married and he gets one of his own. He still visits when he can but she doesn't need him as much as she used to and he loves how strong she is now. It makes it easier, too, when there are missions that see him forced into medical and returning home with obvious injuries. And easy as well when Lamorak dies and he's called to the mansion.

Eggsy hasn't thought much about nominating candidates but he knows he wants someone from the streets, someone like him who just needs an opportunity, and he takes great joy in his candidate showing up in tracksuit bottoms and a snapback. The other agents have their assumptions and his girl blows them all away. She shoots the dog, because she's not going to fail, and Lamorak becomes the second knight with a rap sheet and a London accent.

It's fucking glorious seeing the older agents looking like they swallowed their tongue.

Roxy's one of the first to congratulate her, having tracked her progress throughout. "Well done, Lamorak, it'll be good to have another girl on the table."

Lamorak smiles back at her. "About time you got some fresh blood in here. It seems your table's full of stodgy old men."

On any other day, Eggsy would hold back his laughter but his candidate's just been knighted so he allows himself to crack a grin and agree.

In time, though, he too is perceived as one of those stodgy older men. As new recruits come in and the old ones retire, people begin to forget where Eggsy came from and the gentleman persona he wears becomes who he is. He's strong, he doesn't make mistakes, and he's one of the best active agents. There are even rumours that speak of him becoming Arthur. When he first hears it, he laughs in incredulity but it's entirely possible now the round table has changed.

Eggsy has changed.

He's sent out on the most dangerous missions, the ones which are classified even to some of the other Kingsman agents, and it's why he and his team alone are sent after the mad scientist who wants to go back in time and change the past. There's not much intel to work with but they don't have time and Eggsy's charging in blind to stop a mad scientist once again. The lab is well guarded with cameras and surveillance and they have to fight through too many men and, just from that, Eggsy's bone tired and ready to collapse.

It's a luxury he can't have.

There's a handler in his ear calmly telling him where he needs to go and, somehow, that voice leads him to the lab. There's a machine that's whirring and pulsing and Eggsy knows what it is, despite never truly believing in the possibility.

"Shit." He says, because it's worth saying out loud.

One of his team agrees.

"Remember, we need Dr Eriksen alive and we need the machine." His handler says in his ear.

Aside from the huge machine in the middle of the room, there's nothing of threat to them and it's easy to secure the scientist and convince him, none too gently, to help them when he realises his back up is gone. Eggsy's relieved and he takes a few steps back so he has a clear line of sight into the hallway because it's second nature now. It's a mistake. It puts him an inch too close to the machine. He doesn't stumble back so much as there's a tugging on his arm and he tries to pull forward but it gets stronger and more insistent.

He doesn't remember making a noise but he must because one of his team looks across at him and starts towards him. It's too late, though, and he's gone before they reach him.

Eggsy always imagined he'd die in the field. He thought he'd die saving the world, though, and not because some self-proclaimed genius wanted to mess with time - when had that ever worked for anyone? Still, it was a shock to open his eyes and find himself in some derelict building with nothing else around him.

There was no team and no machine. His handler's just static in his ear and none of the tech department will respond through his glasses. Eggsy has a clue, of course, but he's still somewhat disbelieving of time travel. It takes him a day to walk to the nearest town and, when he does, he's faced with a truth he can't ignore.

There's cars and stores, sure, but they're older makes and models to what he's used to. He's not that far from his own time, it's not as bad as it could've been, but 1998 also feels so long ago. Here, he's all of six years old, and he has to sit down on a bench to get over the shock. The worst thing, when he works it out, is that his father's already dead. If he'd just arrived a few months earlier, Lee Unwin wouldn't have jumped on a grenade and Eggsy wouldn't have gotten a medal from a stranger in place of his father.

And, shit, Harry.

Because, for all Eggsy is an older agent now, accomplished and respected in his own right, he can't help the admiration he feels for the man. Harry had been one of the first people to see something in him, had shown his kindness and praise and beat up Dean's goons, and Eggsy loves the man so much for that. He can't help but think about Harry, and he wonders all the time if he'd approve of Eggsy's collection and the man he is today. And, well, Eggsy's never been good with curiosity.

So he goes to find Harry.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Wattpad!
> 
> https://www.wattpad.com/user/mickey2k14


End file.
